


This Sunny Place

by DreamOfStories



Series: The Catnap Collection [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Naruto
Genre: Gen, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamOfStories/pseuds/DreamOfStories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seals can be dangerous and result in some INSANE things happening. Shikako knows this very well, but not everyone seems to have got the message. So when Shikako is asked to check a dud seal... Well, it was a dud. Why wouldn't her team want to tag along?</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Sunny Place

**Author's Note:**

> Japanese in this is underlined for sake of differentiation. At this point, of the characters with speaking parts, only Shikako knows any Japanese. I have some ideas on how this could go, but its the same deal as the DrWho cross. I have no time.
> 
> BtVS timeline wise, it's just before Kendra comes back to Sunnydale at the start of 'go fish'. DoS timeline... Post-shippuden around the great Weasel Hunt or whatever equivalent Silver goes with. :)

The first thing that Shikako is aware of is that there isn't any chakra. None. It's like being in the dead wastes again before the Mine was destroyed. The constant background hum that Tonbo has been pushing her to become so familiar with is completely absent. It's uncomfortable and leaves an uncomfortable absence behind, just like that particular brand of silence that leaves your ears ringing. In contrast, something in her chest has untwisted itself and she can breathe. Just… breathe. Properly. There's no chakra to make her think she's choking. No emotions pulling at her awareness that aren't her own. It's like her chakra sense has suddenly gone completely numb.

These realisations take a second to sink in.

The next realisation that hits her is that she probably has a concussion. She's standing though, so she couldn't have been out that long - a second or so? Right now her thoughts are… Dazed? Confused? She knows her thoughts aren't exactly the most logical, but the reasoning for this takes a little longer. She remembers the exact instant she realises though; its like a light bulb going off in her head and makes her giggle. Then she carefully circulates healing chakra around her body hoping it will help. There's a small risk using undirected medical chakra but nothing more than that it could make it harder for the healers later. She doesn't think she has anything healing that will heal crooked though. Her limbs don't feel like they're broken and all her fingers move. She can see them wriggling in front of her face. It helps a little, but her thoughts are still fuzzy and strange.

Then she tries to remember what happened.

At this point she has no idea what happened or where she is. All she knows is that she is on a beach near the sea. That particular salty taste to the chakra-less air is unmistakeable. It's like a giant flashing sign, though a flashing sign would be painful right now. Ah, her memories are coming back. They seem pretty standard – she had been on a mission, jumping through trees. Her team was with her. They had ran into an Akatuski… There was the orange mask… oh no. The last thing she remembers is a fight against Tobi and that she doesn't remember how the fight ended only that it had not been going well…

Shikako isn't ashamed to admit, even if just to herself, that the massive jolt of adrenaline that accompanies that memory brings to mind all the symptoms of a heart attack. It doesn't do anything to clear the fuzz from her thoughts though, just leaves her panicked and strangely tired. And wondering where she is and where her team is… There weren't any beaches northwest of Leaf...

Oh.

Her senses aren't completely numb and her team are relatively close. Not moving though. And rather easy to pick out in the dead background that is this world without chakra. Or not dead. There's a grey uniform-ness to the background. Like… if natural chakra was white noise then this is like dirty snow. Heavy and muffling and everywhere underfoot. Her teammates are bright vivid splashes of blue on the snowy canvas.

Her lips tilt up in a smirk. That was funny. And it fits them so well. They are very colourful figures.

"Hey! Are you ok? O.M.G! You're bleeding!"

She tilts her head, as someone turns her towards them. There is something wrong with the words they're saying. She can understand them but… she shouldn't? She should? She blinks in confusion as a second voice joins the others and other people come out of the darkness. This is… They look weird… And they're dressed in strange clothes. They are civilians…? But…

Why would civilians be wearing jackets with 'Sunnydale' on? There wasn't anywhere in Fire called Sunnydale… Or maybe there was... That name did ring a bell... She was so confused...

"Hey! Someone call an ambulance! There's three more people here!"

"Oi Gage, come help me with this one! What is he - solid muscle?!"

"What's with the costumes? And they have weapons too! Are they cosplayers or something…?"

They… They shouldn't be doing that… "You're not supposed to touch…"

"That's an Asian language? Or something?" She blinks at green eyes and blonde hair, as the woman talks. "So do you speak English? Were you attacked? What happened?"

Shikako reaches out to grip her arm as the world around her wobbles. Under her fingers, the woman feels more present, if just as strange as everything else in this world. She's filled with the same strange muffled feeling of the not-snow but… wispier, darker? Almost like… Shikako giggles. "You feel like me-" when I'm a shadow… But she had wanted to keep that a secret hadn't she? No one was supposed to know about her trump card just yet.

"Right, at least you speak some English... We need to get you all to a hospital."

English? She spoke English… She was speaking English? Her mouth was making weird sounds... And there was a word she was looking for… "No!" Civilian hospitals were bad. She knew that. "No hospitals." She touched her head gingerly and grinned when her fingers came away dry. "See not hurt!"

"…What?" The green eyed girl touched her forehead gingerly and her eyes widened. "Ok. We still have to go to hospital but I'll go too, ok? I'll make sure no one looks too closely or anything…"

The grip on her arm is unusually strong for a civilian and Shikako has another lightbulb moment that makes her grin. "You're Buffy!" The blonde's eyes that widen briefly inform her that she's correct even if she can't quite remember right now where the name came from. "You can go with me 'cause we feel almost the same." The girl did feel like shadows. Not her shadows, but shadows all the same… Shadows were a Nara thing right? So it was probably ok.

"Right."

Shikako paused, considering something else that… well, it hadn't just occurred to her. She'd thought about it before. Hadn't she? "Buffy… Where are we?"

"English?"

"Ah... Where are we?"

"Sunnydale, California. How hard were you hit anyway?"

"Don't know..." Shikako wobbled again, the blonde's grip all that was really keeping her upright at this point. "We were fighting... I think..."


End file.
